NASA began the countdown Monday for its Artemis II mission, which it described as humanity’s first launch to the moon in 53 years. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday evening from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a crew of four astronauts riding the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule, and with no planned stops, according to NASA and mission managers. After a day in orbit around Earth, the Orion capsule will propel the crew toward the moon and then back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific, NASA said.
Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said the team was approaching the moment with confidence, telling reporters, “Our team has worked extremely hard to get us to this moment. Certainly all indications are right now we are in excellent, excellent shape.”
NASA said managers were monitoring the rocket’s performance after the latest repairs. Forecasters, NASA said, expected weather conditions to cooperate as the countdown progressed. The launch would follow the completion of checkouts and timing activities that begin once NASA starts the countdown clock, and it would come after the rocket and crew arrived at the launch site earlier this week.
The Artemis II mission had been grounded earlier in the program after issues were found during previous preparations. NASA said the mission should have launched in February but was held up by hydrogen fuel leaks. After those leaks were fixed, NASA said a helium pressurization line became clogged, which forced the rocket to return to the hangar late last month.
NASA said the rocket returned to the pad about 1 1/2 weeks ago, and it also said the U.S.-Canadian crew arrived at the launch site on Friday. This comes after a series of Artemis II readiness moves reported in the days before the countdown, including NASA’s earlier practice countdown work.
Unlike the Apollo missions from 1968 through 1972, NASA said Artemis’ debut crew includes a woman, a person of color and a non-U.S. citizen. Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, who is Black, said he hopes the mission will help young people see themselves in spaceflight, adding that he wants them to think, “Girl power and that’s awesome, and that young brown boys and girls can look at me and go ‘Hey, he looks like me and he’s doing what???’”
Glover also said he looks forward to a time when the crew’s demographic “firsts” are no longer the point of the story, telling reporters that “one day we don’t have to talk about these firsts.” He said he also expects the mission to be about the broader project of exploring the cosmos as part of “human history.”
NASA said Artemis II has the first six days of April in which it could launch before standing down until the end of the month.